France – Pike & Hurricane

YNTR – June 2020: George Floyd, Antifa, Ebola, and more

EditorChief — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 08:14:30 +0000

USA. On May 25, George Floyd (46) was arrested for allegedly using counterfeit money to buy cigarettes. He died as a consequence of a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on his neck for over eight minutes. Protests against racism and racist police violence have erupted throughout the USA, as well as abroad. Unlike as in many other cases, the officers involved in the murder of Floyd have been charged. The charges against Chauvin have been raised from third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter to second-degree murder. His previously uncharged colleagues are now accused of aiding and abetting murder. A few days after the killing of Floyd, hactivist group Anonymous released a video accusing Minneapolis Police Department of “a horrific track record of violence and corruption” in which the murder of Floyd was “merely the tip of the iceberg”.

France. Despite a police-ban thousands of people in France have protested against racist police violence after the murder of George Floyd. The case bares ressemblance to the killing of Adama Traoré (24) in 2016. Official reports claimed he had died of heart failure due to possible pre-existing health conditions. A second autopsy which had been requested by Traoré’s family, however, suggests he died due to the three police officers, that arrested him after he ran from them since e had no ID card with him, holding him to the ground with their bodyweight. They have not been charged. Two days prior to the killing of Floyd, the hashtag #MoiAussiJAiPeurDevantLaPolice has gone viral after singer Camélia Jordana had spoken out against police violence on TV. She stated that “there are thousands of people who do not feel save in the presence of a cop”.

France. Currently, a new law is being debated that would make it illegal to photograph or film police officers (in a manner that makes it possible to identify them). Diffusion of images of this kind could lead to a fine of 15 000€ and even one year in prison. The proposed law is criticised as disregarding the right to inform and making it even more difficult to hold police officers accountable for police violence. At the same time, French police has interrogated Mediapart journalist Pascale Pascariello who frequently reported on police violence and uncovered the lies of president Macron linked to a case of police violence. It is the fourth time in 18 months that police have tried to uncover the sources of Mediapart. Pascariello refused to answer the police’s questions during the one and a half hours of interrogation and criticised the police’s attempt to reveal her sources condemning “a climate of pressure on our profession and of intimidation vis-à-vis our sources”.

USA. In the wake of a disagreement between Donald Trump and Twitter, the US president threatened to introduce legislation that would weaken Twitter’s protection against liability for content by its users. Previously, Twitter had flagged a tweet by Trump on mail-in voting fraud as needing to be fact-checked and flagged another post as “gloryfing violence”. Yet, they decided to not remove the tweet as it is in public interest. The Trump administration had initially responded by retweeting the latter flagged tweet via the White House account which was subsequently hidden by Twitter.

USA. US president Trump has proposed to classify Antifa as a terrorist organisation. Antifa is a loosely organised anti-fascist movement that sees its roots in the radical left groups which resisted fascist dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini. However, Antifa conspiracy theories are wide-spread among groups and members of the political right. Due to its lack of characteristics typical for an organisation, legal experts view Trump’s plan as impossible and even unconstitutional.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the DRC, the eleventh Ebola outbreak was announced on the 31st of May 2020 in the northwest of the country, while in the East the tenth outbreak is not over yet. In the district around the city Mbandaka, 4 people have died. Meanwhile, in the Kivu province the appearance of new case prevented the previous outbreak from being declared as over. The country is under travel restrictions to prevent a spread of the coronavirus. It is a measure which might now also be helpful to fight Ebola.

Russia/Siberia. Near the city Norilsk in Siberia, 15 000 to 20 000 tons of diesel fuel have been spilled into the Ambarnaya river. The waters are heavily polluted and the installed booms will only be able to collect a small portion of the oil that is polluting the environment. The Russian president Putin has declared a state of emergency in Norilsk. The cause is suspected to be the thawing permafrost, followed by the abnormally warm temperatures in the Arctic regions which made the platform sink deeper into the ground.

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“Do not talk to me of […] police violence”

Merle Emrich — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:46:37 +0000

“He knew that the maintenance of order obeyed strict rules, dictated by political power. No police was as submissive to the State as that of M.O., it incarnated the State in its essence. The order that is to be maintained or re-established, is always that of the State. […] the affair was political […]” – David Dufresne (Dernière sommation)

Shortly after the Gilets Jaunes movement began, the journalist David Dufresne started to keep track of injuries inflicted on protesters, medics and journalists by the police during the weekly protests. The statistics are sobering, the visual images circulating online – including photos and videos of head wounds, protesters being targeted with rubber bullets at close distance, violent interpellations, and protesters losing an eye or a hand due to the so-called “less-lethal” weapons used by the police – are horrifying.

Police violence does not, however, exist only since the beginning of the Gilets jaunes protests, nor only in France where, according to a video, created by multiple people and collectives, featuring journalists, activists and lawyers, 578 people have been killed by the police within the last 42 years, 12% of them aged under 18. Police violence might be more pronounced in France due to factors such as the police forces use of weapons (LBD 40, GLI F4, GMD) that are not used in most other European countries and the presence of the BAC (anti-criminality brigade) at protests even though they are not specialised in keeping public order. However, instances of police violence and disproportional use of force are very real – if to a lesser extent – in other EU countries, as well. The disproportionate use of pepper spray and water cannons against Stuttgart 21 protesters in Germany in 2010, violence against Extinction Rebellion activists in Brussels in October 2019 and the response to the Catalan independence movement are further examples.

“No irreparable violence”

The problem with police violence does not stop at the damage done but extends to the manner in which is dealt with its occurence. The French government point blank denies the existence of police violence, or even reinforces it through policy measures such as the loi anti-casseur passed earlier this year. “Do not talk to me of repression or police violence, these words are unacceptable in a constitutional state”, commented President Macron on one occasion during his grand débat. And Interior Minister Castaner claimed to “not know of any police officer who has attacked Gilets jaunes.“

More recently, Macron said: “No irreparable violence has been committed by the police.” However, the loss of an eye or a hand are very much irreparable. Not to speak of two recent incidents which led to the death of Zineb Redouane (Marseille, December 2018) and Steve Maia Caniço (Nantes, June 2019). Rather than “no irreparable” damage being caused by the police, it is the case that the responsibility for the harm done is lifted from them.

The death of Zineb Redouane

On December 1, 2018, Zineb Redouane, aged 80, went to close the window of her apartment in Marseille to prevent tear gas from the protest happening outside entering the flat. She was hit in the face by parts of a tear gas grenade and died the next day in hospital. Following the incident both Interior Minister Castaner and the responsible prosecutor declared that no link could be established between her death and the injuries caused by the tear gas grenade.

The prosecutor based his statement on the autopsy performed in Marseille on December 3. After Zineb Redouane’s body was repatriated to Algeria, her home country, local authorities performed a second autopsy that concluded a direct causal relation between her death and the injuries inflicted on her on December 1. In July 2019, it was revealed that the CRS officer in charge on the day of her death received a medal from the Interior Minister for his work as a police officer, aggravating the grief and anger of her family.

The inquiry into the circumstances of her death did not establish a basis for justice. The five CRS grenade launchers used near Zineb Redouane’s home on December 1 were not confiscated, the officers using the grenade launchers stated that they could not remember who fired the grenade responsible for the injuries and neither were they able to identify the shooter in video footage. The police officers’ radio exchanges went missing, and the only security camera present apparently malfunctioned.

Selon l’IGPN

In the night from 21 to 22 June, 24-year old Steve Maia Caniço went missing following a police charge at the fête de la Musique, a free party in Nantes, during which 33 tear gas grenades, 10 sting-ball grenades and 12 flash balls were used against the party-goers without warning and resulted in 14 people falling into the Loire. More than a month later, on 29 July, Steve Maia Caniço’s body was found in the river. The following day, Prime Minister Philippe announced that based on the report of a general inspection of the National Police (IGPN), the “police of the police”, no link could be established “between the police intervention and the death of Mr Steve Maia Caniço.“

The reaction to this statement on social media followed soon after. Using the hashtag #selonlIGPN (according to the IGPN), people expressed their indignation at the denial of responsibility pointing out the absurdity of the report’s conclusion. Comments ranged from “we could not establish a link between the intervention of the Prime Minister and the truth, either” to “#selonlIGPN no link could be established between the atomic bomb and Hiroshima.” And indeed, some time later more information was released to the public and generated even more doubt on the accurateness of the inquest. According to mediapart, accounts of witnesses confirming that they had fallen into the Loire since they were unable to see due to the tear gas as they tried to get away from the police were left out. Moreover, the IGPN used Steve Maia Caniço’s last text message, sent at 3:16 am, to conclude that he must have fallen into the river before the police intervention, whereas according to Le canard enchainé his phone continued to transmit signals until 4:33 am, that is, after the police intervention had begun.

Justice and responsibility

The existence of police violence cannot be denied and those who are responsible are rarely held accountable. A statistic published by the University Bochum and the Federal Statistical Office shows that 91 percent of the cases of police violence in Germany in 2017 were dropped, and only 2 percent were followed by charges or a penal order. More often than not filing charges against a police officer leads to being charged with resistance against an executory officer.

So, what are the alternatives to police investigating police – or, in fact, failing to do so properly? In Germany, Die Linke (left-wing party) suggested the establishment of an independent office processing complaints against police officers. Similarly, in France, there are voices being raised demanding the replacement of the IGPN with a more independent commission tasked with inquiries into the police force. Of course, the improvement of such procedures and institutions alone will not eradicate police violence but it might well be a first step towards reducing it.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

La fresque en hommage à Steve Maia Caniço sur le quai Wilson à Nantes – Août 2019, Erwan Corre, CC BY-SA 4.0

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“Féminicides”: the new French word to talk about the murder of women in France.

Aimée Niau Lacordaire — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:43:05 +0000

They were called Audrey, Chafia, Johanna, Monique, Mauricette. What do all these women have in common? They, and 116 others, were stabbed, burnt, strangled, slaughtered, beaten to death… by their spouse, husband or ex in the year 2019 in France.

The number of femicides in France since the beginning of the year 2019, is 121 as of 16/10/19, but the number grows every week. They were 121 in 2018, which means that we have exceeded the number of femicides compared to the previous year: evidence of a significant systemic problem.

A femicide is: “The murder of a woman or a young girl, because she is a woman.” It is, however, not recognized in the French penal code. In France, the expression officially entered the vocabulary of law and the humanities in 2014, but not in the penal code. According to lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, in the podcast “Pas son genre” on the radio France inter, the integration of “féminicide” in the penal code has lawyers divided. Indeed, for the murder of a woman and a man cannot be distinguished by name in the same way as the murder of a person according to their ethnicity.

There are several types of femicides but we will focus on the “intimate” femicide, committed by the victim’s current or former spouse. According to a study cited by the World Health Organization, more than 35% of women killed worldwide are killed by their partners, compared to only 5% of murders involving men.

WHY? Systemic violence, a patriarchal and sexist society!

A lot of association like Osons le féminisme ! speak about “systemic violence” (character of what is related to a system), and want “féminicide” to be recognized as a “societal fact” when many murders of women are still referred to as “crimes of passion” and relegated to the category of miscellaneous facts.

Systemic violence comes from a sexist and a patriarchal society. In our society women have “always” been considered inferior to men. Gender stereotypes reinforce the appearance of the weak, sweet, gentle woman and the strong men, manly, who think they are justified in abusing their spouse. In 1975, the National Audiovisual Institute (INA) released a video of men’s speeches about the violence they inflict on their spouses. We can hear sentences like: “If I want to hit my wife, I’m sure she will make love better” or, “There are women who like it, I don’t know, out of habit, maybe.” Even if it would be forbidden to have such public discourse, this reality is not so far from view of the number of femicides.

In many cases of femicide, there is domestic violence in the home. The patriarchal violence of judicial and police institutions ignore and diminish situations of violence reducing them to simple “marital disputes” whose violence is normalized. A lot of victims had told the police about the violence they were suffering, and now they are dead.

France is not the only country with a lot of femicide. 43600, this is the number of women and girls killed in 2012 worldwide. Countries such as Romania, Ireland, Finland, Germany and Mexico have the same systemic violence. For several months, thousands of Mexicans have been protesting, on social networks and in the streets, against the authority’s inaction in cases of femicide and sexual violence.

In Spain, since 2003, “machismo violence” has been erected as a great national cause. Faced with the resurgence of this violence in Spain, the socialist government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wanted to strike hard, and put in place measures that today passed in the world. It’s novel in Europe, Spain have put in place a victim support offices, legal and psychological assistance and legal proceedings. Moreover, the government has unlocked an XXL budget to end femicides. The results are that in 2018, 47 women died at the hands of their spouse, compared to 71 in 2003.

So why does the French government not do the same?

Action in France and repression by the government!

Some actions by collectives, such as Noustoutes (“allofus”), Féminicide par son compagnon ou ex (“femicides by our spouse or ex”), or the Femen have been set up.

Féminicide par son compagnon ou ex use a Facebook page to register all the victims of the femicides in France. Noustoutes organized marches, demonstrations, to support, to inform, about the violence and the crimes that undergoes to the women. But nothing has changed in view of the number of femicides that are growing day by day.

A new form of protest has been put in place. Since August, feminist activists have posted them in the streets of Paris. They put up messages such as, “She leaves him, he kills her“, “More listened dead than alive“, or in commemoration of the victims: “Georgette was strangled by her husband the 21.03.19 “ as in the photo below. This movement has now settled in many cities of France.

“Georgette was strangled by her husband the 21.03.19”

Célia Maurincomme, feminist activist, who participates in the collage of signs in Lyon, said, “By putting up this sign against femicide, we want to inform people about those murders. And we expect a mobilization of citizens to put pressure on the French state! All this is illegal, we can be taken into custody for putting up posters.“

Many feminist activists have complained about police repression of collages or tags. As said by Célia Maurincomme, police can put you in jail if you put up collages or spray tags on walls about femicides. “One activist put up a sign that said ‘117 femicides, Macron reaction!’ outside of her window because Macron was coming to Lyon. Two armed policemen came to her house and confiscated the sign.” “Some girls were arrested by the police when they put up signs, the police humiliated them, and took their names, addresses, etc.” said C. Maurincomme.

A crackdown is put in place by the government, to punish women who are fighting against their own potential murder. “We’re being killed and you’re talking about tags on walls” said a feminist activist in Mexico.

Saturday 5 October 2019, hundred Femen, demonstrate at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. With their skin and hair grayed with clay, wearing messages written on their torso like “I didn’t want to die“, to denounce feminicide and to claim that the government needs “a stronger mobilization.”

Each had a black stele-shaped sign, with the names of women killed by their spouse or ex since the beginning of 2019. They wanted, with this strong act, to call out the “power in place‘,’ explained one of them in a statement. “We recall that most of these women, before being murdered, had been victims of domestic violence and had alerted civil society, police, justice, threats to them.”

by Aimée Niau Lacordaire

Photo credits

0001 by Alvaro Tapia CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Paris 2019, Ithmus, CC BY 2.0

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France and the Sorrows of Organic Agriculture

Merle Emrich — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 13:27:15 +0000

We live in a time, in which climate change and environmental protection are one of the most important challenges that need to be overcome. Organic farming can be a factor that contributes positively to this aim. However, interests of private companies and counterproductive government policies increase the difficulty of making this possibility reality – the situation in France being only one example.

Vittel without Water

In Vittel, France – where more than two million bottles of water a produced daily – about thirty farmers have signed a contract with Nestlé’s subsidiary company Agrivair. These farmers are allowed to use the land agreed upon in the contract for free, provided they comply with a number of regulations that are supposed to keep the groundwater clean. So far, so good. Yet, this deal is part of a development that sees Nestlé privatising more and more water sources in the region making it impossible for anyone but the company to use them. Not only is there a plan to cut off the whole population of Vittel from local water sources and instead pump water through a pipeline from a region fifteen kilometres away into the homes of the people, but it also makes life difficult for the farmers that have signed Nestlé’s contract.

During summer, water supplies are already low, especially with groundwater levels sinking due to Nestlé’s presence in the region. Since the company has – legally – closed wells to prevent nitrate from polluting the water, the farmers are forced to drive around for up to five hours a day to organise water for their animals. And that even though Nestlé has built a new well and thus, there would be enough water for the company as well as the farmers that help keeping the groundwater clean. One of these farmers is Benoît Gille who combines growing apples with keeping a breed of sheep that does not eat bark. That way the sheep naturally maintain and fertilise the meadow which the apple trees grow on. It could be success story of organic farming if it wasn’t for the water issue.

Guns before Butter

Vittel, however, is not the only place in France where farmers – especially organic farmers – are facing troubles. Despite a growing awareness of and interest in organic agriculture, the French government decided to discontinue state support for organic farmers (2018). Macron has broken with France’s traditional stance on EU agricultural subsidies by accepting a reduction of these funds. The plan combines a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with increased spending in other sectors, especially defense which illustrates what POLITICO calls a policy of ‘guns before butter’. And despite assurances that there will not be a CAP reduction, most experts on farm policy predict a general fall in farm funding.

Macron is already facing a severe image problem due to accusations of him being ‘president of the rich’ and not of the ordinary people. His take on reforming the agricultural sector is more than unlikely to change this for the better and could offer a chance to more right-leaning politicians to win some extra points in the coming European elections. And that is beside severely harming the organic agricultural sector.

What Organic Agriculture is and what it should be

With 58% of the French people being convinced that organic farming is beneficial for environmental protection both the number of consumers and organic farmers is growing. Yet, organic agriculture only accounts for a small percentage (7.3%) of all farmed land. It is a sector that, despite gathering strength, still needs support – not to increase consumption but for technical development. The abolition of CAP funds for sustainable agriculture thus present a serious challenge to organic farming as has already become evident in the cases of the UK and the Netherlands.

In the case of the UK the land used for organic farming has been diminished by 29% within five years (2010-2015) once subsidies for the sector had been cut. With environmental protection being more urgent than ever, it is counterproductive to weaken the organic farming industry, especially when there is the necessary consumer demand that helps the sector grow until it is stable enough to function on its own. From rising food prices due to increased production costs to increased water pollution due to nitrate in fertilisers that are used in conventional farming, the reduction of support for organic agriculture has a number of negative impacts on environmental as well as social justice. Thus, as French MEP Eric Andrieu (S&D) states: ‘Organic agriculture should be the primary beneficiary of future CAP reform, but we are still far from such agricultural revolution.’

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Fauno in the fields, Damanhur Spiritual EcoCommunity, CC BY-ND 2.0

Shropshire Sheep, Amanda Slater, CC BY-SA 2.0

Agriculture, StateofIsrael, CC BY 2.0

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Photo Essay: A Nation Sees Yellow

Merle Emrich — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 13:23:24 +0000

‘When it is pressed or attacked, it changes form and repositions itself. It exerts constant counter force to search for weakness.’ This is a quote from the website The Taoism for the Modern World describing an aspect of the Tao of water. But the quote could also be easily applied to both the Gilets Jaunes and to the French government.

The Gilets Jaunes movement that had started in mid-November 2018 is still going strong. And the government – unwilling to give into demands for more direct democracy, the re-introduction of the wealth tax and higher salaries combined with lower taxes for the working and middle class – appears, in a seemingly helpless manner, to rely on the use of force. Its most recent strategy has been revealed on March 18 by Prime Minister Édouard Philippe introducing new, stricter measures including more autonomy for the police forces employed, the use of drones, declaring certain areas such as the Champs Elysée (Paris) or the Place du Capitole (Toulouse) out of bounds for protests and banning the full or partial covering of faces.

The atmosphere at the protests, however, leaves to conclude that the Gilets Jaunes are as unwilling to give in as the government. As the protesters march through to Toulouse on one of the first warm days of March they shout ‘We are not tired’. And a woman wearing a yellow high-visibility vest – the source of the movement’s name – on which she has written ‘I am scared but I am here’ joins the other protesters in their singing: ‘We are here! We are here! Even if Macron doesn’t want it, we are here. For the honour of the workers, and for a better world, even if Macron doesn’t want it, we are here.’ A few steps away some protesters are collecting donations to pay the defence lawyers of imprisoned Gilets Jaunes – it is only one of many instances in which the solidarity between the protesters becomes evident.

While the French government is trying to staunch what some, more or less in jest, refer to as a revival of the French Revolution, and only seems to even more dam up the anger of the people that is already overflowing, it is no also criticised for excessive use of police force by human rights organisations and international political bodies alike. Criticism and accusations which it refutes or seeks to play down.

In early December 2018 the French human rights organisation Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (LDH) pointed out the disproportional and at time illegitimate use of GLI-F4 and LBD 40. GLI-F4 is a tear gas grenade that contains 25g of TNT which has caused several people to lose a hand. LBD stands for lanceur de balle de défense (defence ball launcher) and is a rubber projectile of about 4 cm size (diameter). It is classified as a ‘less-lethal’ weapon and can cause bone fractures and has cost a number of Gilets Jaunes an eye.

Around the same time as LDH, Amnesty International (AI) issued a report on police violence linked to the Gilets Jaunes protests and urged French authorities to ‘exercise restraint when policing demonstrations.’ West Europe researcher for AI, Rym Khadhraoui stated that ‘[a]s the clouds of tear gas lift, a clearer picture has emerged which shows police have used excessive force against largely peaceful protesters, journalists and even children. […] Whilst policing demonstrations is a difficult task and some protesters have committed unlawful and violent acts, it is essential that both French law and international human rights law is respected.’

On February 14, 2019, the EU Parliament was the first international political institution to criticise the manner in which force had been used against protesters by French authorities. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, issued a memorandum on the situation. She noted a lack of respect for human rights in the attempts to maintain public order and criticised the, then planned and now introduced, measures including ‘excessive restrictions to freedom of peaceful assembly’, as well as the methods used, particularly the use of LBD.

In March, the United Nations (UN) placed France on its police violence list on which it now is the only developed country joining ranks with states such as Venezuela, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Yet, the French government is refuting all criticism of international organisations and human rights institutions, as well as calls from the Council of Europe, AI and the independent French human rights authority le Défenseur des Droits to put an end to the use of LBD. Interior Minister Castaner objected by stating that ‘French people [are allowed] to express themselves every day in our Grand Débat. We are already investigating the issue of police violence.’ And Secretary of State to PM Philippe, Benjamin Griveaux, responded to the UN’s decision: ‘I must say, I am surprised to find ourselves on a list between Venezuela and Haiti, where there have been death [due to force].’

Contributing to tensions are accusations of the police using illegitimate force against journalists and children. In early December 2018, parallel to the Gilets Jaunes protests, high school demonstrations against a planned school reforms, were taking place. In a Parisian suburb a peacefully protesting student was, according to AI, hit in the face by a LBD rubber projectile. Around the same time, a video went viral showing students being forced by riot police to kneel with their hands behind their heads or handcuffed behind their backs. According to lawyer Mourad Battikh, some of the students might have been kept in this position for up to four hours which would constitute a form of cruel and degrading treatment prohibited under international law. In addition to that, a number of journalists were injured. Some of the claim they had been deliberately targeted and repeatedly shot with LBD rubber bullets despite being clearly identifiable as press.

The task of the French police is undoubtedly a difficult one, especially given their already bad working conditions with the result of a worrying wave of suicides among the ranks of the police nationale. The EU Commissioner for Human Rights took note of them ‘working in the context of high tensions and fatigue’ and stressed the importance of adequate salaries, sufficient time off work, as well as psychological support and human rights training throughout the police officers’ careers.

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Les Gilets Jaunes: A Discovery of Revolution

Merle Emrich — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 20:16:18 +0000

Since the beginning of the gilets jaunes (‘yellow vests’) movement, a response to Macron’s planned fuel tax hike as environmental measure, it has become clear that the protests are not directed against green policies. The increasingly expensive fuel prices were merely the drop that made the barrel of social injustices overfull. In the wake of this revolt against neo-liberal policies references to the French Revolution of 1789 peak through in the discourse of newspapers and on the streets. But who – or rather why – are the gilets jaunes, and what do they have in common with 230-year old revolutionaries?

Do You Hear the People Sing?

Mass protests and revolts can be confusing, especially when they are led by a diverse, leaderless movement such as the gilets jaunes, leaving many underlying structures undiscovered until, with time, they surface. What first had been perceived as opposition to rising fuel prices, soon revealed much larger magma chambers of anger at social injustices, disillusionment with party politics, and dissatisfaction with France’s ‘arrogant’ ‘president of the rich’.

The existence of the people’s frustration and its eventual eruption should not have come as a surprise, however. The prelude to the gilets jaunes already began in 1983, when Mitterand’s government imposed austerity policies leaving the people worried about the state of their social protections. Since then the French welfare system has been increasingly dismantled by the following governments in which the Macron administration is merely the latest one.

‘The first social law is therefore the one that guarantees all members of society the means of existence’ – Maximilien de Robespierre

All the same, Macron having been elected by many as the lesser of two evils and his failure to emphasise with the regular people have not contributed to defusing concerns. During his election campaign, Macron portrayed himself as a politician different to the established career politicians of previous governments. Once elected, he – not very surprisingly – turned out to be just one more privileged mainstream politician by instantaneously amending the wealth tax (ISF) and continuing on the path of neo-liberal policies.

His unfortunate history of condescending statements towards working class people such as ‘You don’t scare me with your T-shirt. The best way of paying for a suit is to work’, or that it were easy to find a job if only one tried since ‘[e]verywhere I go people say to me that they are looking for staff’ have not helped in the least to create an image of Macron as the people’s man. In fact, especially in rural areas there is a lack of employment opportunities and Macron’s austerity project includes the cutting of 100 000 more jobs in the public sector. The people feel overlooked and ignored by Paris, and it is not only the poor who struggle with high prices of i.e. fuel but also the middle class.

We no longer want this system of exploitation.

We no longer want people having to sleep on the streets.

We can no longer count our money, be in debt by the tenth of the month.

And we are millions who are in this situation.

(Gilets Jaunes leaflet)

The Figure of he King and Rhetoric of Revolution

The gilets jaunes movement, sparked by an attempted environmental policy directed at those who already have troubles making ends meet instead of the actors mainly responsible for pollution, the big industries, is a heterogeneous mass. While uniting people with different backgrounds and expectations without a clearly defined leadership, and in part being targeted by right-wing groups seeking to use it as platform for their ideology, the protests have some clear general objectives. Their demands range from higher wages and social security payments over better (free) public services and a fairer tax system including the reintroduction of the ISF to more direct democracy and the resignation of Macron.

If you go to the city centre of any French city on a Saturday you will encounter a crowd of people with drums and flags, many of them wearing their high-visibility vests. And if you stop listening to the chants of ‘ Macron! Démission!’ (Macron! Resignation!) you might every now and then pick up a reference to the French Revolution. And indeed, since the beginning of the protest comparisons to the revolution of 1789 have multiplied. The yellow vests that the movement owes its name to involuntarily reminds of the sans-culottes: the ‘culottes’ (pantaloons) were a symbol of aristocracy in 18th century society, thus, the sans-culotte represented the anti-elitist movement of that time much like the gilets jaunes with their high-visibility vests which can be seen not only as a sign of distress (used e.g. in the event of a car accident), but also as a symbol of the working class, are the French anti-elitist movement of today.

And even though the socio-economic circumstances of today and 230 years ago are not the same, the themes are. Both the French Revolution and the current wave protests can be linked to an anger over high living costs (indirect taxes on i.e. salt then causing the price of bread to sore, Macron’s fuel tax now) and favouritism towards the wealthiest 1%, as well as dissatisfaction with a king/ president who is out of touch with the regular people. Or as a gilet jaune put it: ‘This is the beginning of the revolution. We are not in 1789, we’re not going to cut off heads but we want that Macron resigns […] In 1789, the aristocracy was about 1% of the population. That is the same percentage that the ISF applies to.’

Funnily enough, Macron is reported to have said that ‘in French politics what is absent is the figure of the king which I think basically the French people did not want dead.’ He could not have been more wrong. After all, the French Revolution, although France relapsed into authoritarianism with Napoleon, endowed the people with sovereignty. Sovereignty in so far as that they could hold their representatives accountable to guarding social justice and the equality of the people. Moreover, the constitution of 1793 degreed that a law if opposed by at least 10% in half of France would not be adopted. These principles and achievements of the French Revolution – social justice, equality, accountability and more direct democracy – are the objectives of the gilets jaunes. And more pragmatically, according to sociologist and president of the Fondation maison des sciences de l’homme (FMSH), Michel Wievorka, the comparison with the revolution provides the protesters with a legitimating rhetoric that every French(wo)man can related to, and that thus unites an otherwise diverse movement.

by Merle Emrich

Photos Credits

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The post Les Gilets Jaunes: A Discovery of Revolution appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

Les Gilets Jaunes: The Uncovering of Violence

Merle Emrich — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 20:00:57 +0000

It is Saturday. A man wearing a yellow high-visibility vest shouts at a group of police officers in riot gear who are speed-walking past: ‘It is us, the gilets jaunes, who are the nice guys!’ One of the officers sarcastically replies: ‘Oh, really?’. Scenes like these are not unusual these days. Since November, the gilets jaunes (‘yellow vests’) are protesting in France; the media shows images of rioting protesters, comparisons of the police nationale with the Gestapo are thrown into the room by protesters. Yet, the story of police violence and riots leaves more to uncover than might be apparent at first glance.

The Same Procedure as Last Saturday? The Same Procedure as Every Saturday!

Since a good three months, the gilets jaunes are protesting all over France leaving the occasional trail of anti-Macron graffiti, destroyed ATMs and broken windows of luxury shops. Their protests follow a similar pattern every Saturday: It starts with a happily chatting and singing crowd gathering at midday. Some bring drums, others flags and banners. As the protest continues the chants calling for Macron’s resignation begin to mix with those directed against the police. Some have brought white roses as a sign of peacefulness, others hold up pictures of bloody faces – the faces of those wounded by the police.

The clashes and destruction that occasionally follow are not the result of an irrational mob, a ‘hateful crowd‘, set out to destroy whatever stands in their way. Of course, there might be some that see vandalism as a sport. But altogether, it is the anger and frustration of those who felt unheard and forgotten for far too long and where exposed to non-physical violence in form of social injustices. It is an anger which now surfaces with the destructive force of a tsunami. The sad thing is that for some physical violence as response to this economic and psychological violence appears to be the only way to be noticed.

It is a shame that the French government did not react until after increasingly violent protests in early December. It seems to confirm that the only way to be heard by those in power is chaos and destruction. It is a shame that the images of the gilets jaunes shown on the news seem to portray little else but this chaos and destruction. And it is a sad commentary on this society which appears to be only interested in the news if it shows violence and scandal.

Scenes From a Protest

Not all of the violence, however, originates from the few gilets jaunes that are prone to destruction. According to government figures, the protests have seen at least 1700 protesters injured and ten dead in the time until early February. The far-left Parti Ouvrier Indépendant (POI, Independent Workers’ Party) speaks of more than 2000 injured protesters, 124 severely wounded gilets jaunes, 20 blinded by LBD 40 flash-balls, 4 hands torn off by GLI-F4 grenades the use of which has been defended by Interior Minister Castaner despite the known mutilating potential of these tear gas and stun grenades.

It does not come as a surprise that these incidents of police violence only spark more anger. That is, once again, not to say that all gilets jaunes are nothing but peaceful, or that those protesters who resort to violence and vandalism should not be held accountable. Neither is it to say that all measures taken by the police and the government are unreasonable. Yet, it certainly prompts questions about limits of state violence and the legitimacy of the use of force by the police.

The group of protesters stands facing the police in full riot gear. There are metres of empty space in between them and, apart from perhaps one or two bottles that shatter in front of the feet of the police, the situation is peaceful. It is impossible to say whether the trigger was a smoke bomb which someone brought, or if the police decided that the protest had gone on long enough, but suddenly more police are coming from the other end of the square and thick clouds of tear gas hang in the air. From now on the protesters are met with tear gas in almost every street, often launched at them from every direction making the air unbreathable. Shortly after sunset a group of protesters, their hands in the air as a sign of peacefulness, heads down a narrow street that is blocked by the police. All of a sudden, the group of police officers charges at them. One of them fires something, perhaps a flash-ball or a stun grenade, into the crowd that turns on their heels and takes flight.

A Stanford Prison Experiment on the Streets

Does that mean then that all cops are indeed bastards? Not quite. As Jérôme Rodrigues, one of the more prominent figures of the gilets jaunes movement said, ¨this violence is applied by the police simply because they are the shield of the powerful that tremble under the pressure of the people.¨ The Stanford prison experiment helps to better understand the link between the protests, the police and violence. While there is an abundance of criticism directed at the experiment and its findings, it nonetheless demonstrates how our environment influences our behaviour and how power can corrupt and provoke extreme actions.

The first important thing to note is that there is a clear power asymmetry between the gilets jaunes and the police. While the protesters usually don’t have anything but makeshift means to protect their mouths, noses and eyes from tear gas, as well as the occasional glass bottle, the police is equipped with professional protective gear including gas masks and shields, batons, water cannons, pepper spray, stun grenades, tear gas and flash-balls. During the experiment about a third of the participants assigned a role as guard began to abuse their power which escalated into degrading behaviour towards the ‘prisoners’. And even those who did not like their role as guard and where thus not prone to abuse their power did not step in. It implies that if there are institutions and structures creating a power imbalance, people can be corrupted by this power and behave in extreme ways which might explain incidents of extreme responses of the police to the gilets jaunes’ protests.

The second idea the Stanford prison experiment suggests, supported by Milgram’s obedience study, is that we behave as we believe we are expected to behave, especially if these expectations come from a superior authority . Thus, police officers using more force than necessary can be traced to obedience towards superior officers or institutions. In such a case it is very likely that the police officers in question do not act out of an intent to hurt anyone but believe in fact that they merely do what is necessary to control the situation.

What transpired in the analysis following the experiment was that a lack of criticism by authorities can be – consciously or subconsciously – interpreted as approval or encouragement and further increase the abuse of power. And indeed, the responses of the French government to the harm caused by flash-balls and stun grenades were either defending the use of them or an outright denying the injuries caused. On February 8 the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative jurisdiction, furthermore allowed the police to continue launching flash-balls at protesters, despite criticism by human rights organisations such as the Ligue des droits de l’Homme. This decision legitimises the violence against protesters – and not only against those who actually attempt to start a riot but also against those who peacefully exercise their right to protest since a flash-ball launched into a crowd can hit anyone who happens to stand in its way.

While tear-gas and flash-balls are a relatively effective means to disperse protesters – at least temporarily – they don’t do much to appease the situation. Instead they foster more anger and resentment against the government and its tool of state violence, the police. As Louis Boyard, president of the union nationale lycéene (UNL) who was wounded by a flash-ball or grenade, said according to the POI’s newsletter: ‘A government that uses violence against its youth is a government that is scared, it is a government that is close to giving in. […] I will give in neither to violence nor to fear.’

Macron’s Great Mess

Violence against protesters frequently takes place on the street but also in the courts. It finds expression in preventive arrests that reportedly are at times based on nothing more but a slight suspicion, and in France’s new anti-rioting bill that according to critics does not only target rioters but can easily be abused to limit the people’s freedom to protest in general. It is a form of violence that cannot be explained with simplistic answers pointing i.e. at corrupt police. Rather it has its roots in often undiscovered or invisible institutions and power structures that are now brought to light. It is evidence of a government so out of its depth that it hides behind a shield of an instrumentalised police and judiciary apparatus, and which has lost the trust of the people. Yet, repressive responses to the frustration and despair of the gilets jaunes will not calm tempers. Neither will Macron’s grand débat which is seen by some as a PR strategy giving it the nickname grand dégat (‘great mess’). The only sensible thing Macron’s government can do is to take decisive actions that demonstrate a convincing step towards the ordinary people.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Related Articles:

Les Gilets Jaunes: A Discovery of Revolution

Photo Essay: A Nation Sees Yellow

The post Les Gilets Jaunes: The Uncovering of Violence appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.